Secretary of the Navy packed a piece during Afghanistan trip

U.S. Marine Corps

Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer speaks with Marines and Sailors assigned to Task Force Southwest at Camp Shorab, Afghanistan, on Dec. 23. A Beretta 9mm pistol appears to be holstered at his side.

Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer speaks with Marines and Sailors assigned to Task Force Southwest at Camp Shorab, Afghanistan, on Dec. 23. A Beretta 9mm pistol appears to be holstered at his side. (U.S. Marine Corps)

Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer recently carried a pistol while visiting a forward base in Afghanistan, raising questions about whether and when civilian political appointees should be armed when traveling with the troops.

Reached by email on Thursday evening, Navy spokesman Capt. Patrick McNally said that Marine commanders in Task Force Southwest provided the secretary with a handgun, ammunition and a holster when he toured Camp Shorab and other spots in the war ravaged country on Dec. 23.

“He was offered the weapon to carry while he was traveling around (Afghanistan) and he accepted that offer,” McNally said. “It was not something that he specifically requested and it was offered to everybody on the travel team.”

Mostly composed of military members, the only other civilian supervisor in Spencer’s party was an Army National Guard helicopter pilot who has served in Afghanistan, McNally added.

Spencer, 63, was a Marine H-46 Sea Knight pilot before leaving active duty in 1981 to enter the private finance sector. The Wyoming resident was sworn in as the 76th secretary of the Navy on Aug. 3.

Photographs released by the military authorities in Afghanistan show Spencer accompanied by Marine Corps commandant Gen. Robert B. Neller and the Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps, Ronald L. Green.

They met with Marines and sailors in the task force as well as key Afghan leaders in restive Helmand province, including Governor Hayatullah Hayat, to reaffirm a mutual commitment to wage war against the Taliban, according to a statement from NATO Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul.

As images of Spencer’s firearm circulated on the social media, many military veterans defended Spencer’s decision to pack a pistol, pointing to what GIs call “green on blue” incidents — assassinations of NATO military advisers by Afghan troops secretly loyal to the Taliban or other insurgent groups.

By mid-2017, insider attacks had killed at least 157 NATO personnel and 557 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, according to an analysis by the Modern War Institute at West Point.

But other war veterans thought it was strange to see President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Navy and Marine Corps toting a firearm overseas.

“It’s odd for a senior civilian political appointee to carry a weapon in a combat zone,” said Phillip Carter, an Army veteran of the war in Iraq and now the director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for a New American Security think tank.

“Very few senior officials have formal weapons training, let alone recent marksmanship qualifications or training on military rules of engagement. Senior appointees at that level have a protective detail assigned just so they can focus on their job and not worry about their personal security.”

Carter was a political appointee in President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009, responsible for foreign fighter detainee policy issues, and couldn’t recall ever seeing a high-level civilian Pentagon supervisor brandishing a firearm overseas.

“But if you’re going to carry then you should do so safely, with proper training, including both weapons qual and (rules of engagement) training,” Carter said.

Military regulations issued in 2006 allow local American commanders to issue weapons to federal civilian employees and contractors, but commanders are urged to issue that authorization in writing and the policy mandates firearms training to those granted the privilege.

It’s unclear whether Spencer received written authorization from a junior commander he oversaw and his spokesman McNally did not know whether the secretary was trained and certified under military standards to carry a sidearm.

Three decades ago, as a Marine officer Spencer would have training and been tested on the use of the M1911 semiautomatic .45 caliber pistol, not the M9 9mm Beretta that’s issued to troops today.

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